Category: Uncategorized

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Gospel: John 10: 31-42

The Jews picked up rocks to stone Jesus.
Jesus answered them, “I have shown you many good works from my Father.
For which of these are you trying to stone me?”
The Jews answered him,
“We are not stoning you for a good work but for blasphemy.
You, a man, are making yourself God.”
Jesus answered them,
“Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, ‘You are gods”‘? 
If it calls them gods to whom the word of God came,
and Scripture cannot be set aside,
can you say that the one
whom the Father has consecrated and sent into the world
blasphemes because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’? 
If I do not perform my Father’s works, do not believe me;
but if I perform them, even if you do not believe me,
believe the works, so that you may realize and understand
that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.”
Then they tried again to arrest him;
but he escaped from their power.

He went back across the Jordan
to the place where John first baptized, and there he remained. 
Many came to him and said,
“John performed no sign,
but everything John said about this man was true.”
And many there began to believe in him.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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Ironically, Jesus’ greatest critics today consider him to be nothing more than a man. Perhaps a good man – and a great moral teacher – but only a man.

Meanwhile, the critics in Jesus’ time wanted to stone him – not for claiming to be a man, but for claiming to be God!

“We are not stoning you for a good work, but for blasphemy,” they say. “You, a man, are making yourself God.”

To which Jesus responds, “If you do not believe me…then believe the works.”

No one other than God could bring sight to the blind, healing to lepers, or Lazarus back from the dead. The proof is in the pudding. 

Still, some people remained skeptical and hard of heart. So, they raised their stones to kill him.

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This Gospel passage presses all of us into deciding – “Is Jesus just a man? Or is he God?” 

He is or he isn’t. There’s no middle ground. As he himself says, “I AM.”

If Jesus is God, then how does that affect our desire to know him?

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In this age of rapid scientific development and the relentless pursuit of knowledge, perhaps we could all use a little reminder:

If you want to know anything about life’s mysteries – from the creation of the world to the purpose of your own life – turn to the One who’s behind it all.

Jesus.

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Image credits: (1) Medium (2) Bible Study Media (3) Quora

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Gospel: John 8: 51-59

Jesus said to the Jews:
“Amen, amen, I say to you,
whoever keeps my word will never see death.”
So the Jews said to him,
“Now we are sure that you are possessed.
Abraham died, as did the prophets, yet you say,
‘Whoever keeps my word will never taste death.’
Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died?
Or the prophets, who died?
Who do you make yourself out to be?”
Jesus answered, “If I glorify myself, my glory is worth nothing;
but it is my Father who glorifies me,
of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’
You do not know him, but I know him.
And if I should say that I do not know him,
I would be like you a liar.
But I do know him and I keep his word.
Abraham your father rejoiced to see my day;
he saw it and was glad.”
So the Jews said to him,
“You are not yet fifty years old and you have seen Abraham?”
Jesus said to them, “Amen, amen, I say to you,
before Abraham came to be, I AM.”
So they picked up stones to throw at him;
but Jesus hid and went out of the temple area.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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I was once a third-grade teacher in a public school in Newark. One of the first bits of advice I received from veteran teachers was: “Never raise your voice.”

If you raise your voice, then you’ve already lost control. What you wanted your students to do before, will certainly not happen now.

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In today’s Gospel, the scribes and Pharisees continue their lengthy confrontation with Jesus. We’ve been hearing this back-and-forth between them all week, and these religious authorities simply don’t get it.

Jesus has made fantastic claims – and today he lays it all out there – “I AM.” Meaning, before the world existed, Jesus existed. He has been – and always will be – alive because he is God. As the Letter to the Hebrews states, “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever.”

Spewing with frustration, the authorities raise their voices and resort to calling Jesus names like “demon-possessed” because they do not believe him.

They cannot. 

Jesus doesn’t fit inside the box they’ve made for God. 

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I’m sure that’s something we’ve all experienced before.

At times, God seems bigger, stranger, different from whom we’d imagined. 

Maybe you felt this way when you understood a particular quote in the bible for the first time.

Maybe your eyes were opened after witnessing a miracle (we’ve had several examples of physical healing in our parish!) 

Maybe you asked God for something and you didn’t receive it. So, your view of God changed. 

Or maybe you struggle to understand all of what Catholics believe – our sins are forgiven in confession; the Eucharist is not bread – it is Jesus; the pope is the authoritative representative of Christ on earth.

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Unlike the scribes and Pharisees who resorted to name calling and violence when they failed to understand Jesus, may our hearts become softer and our minds more open to accepting him for who he is – God – yesterday, today, and forever.

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Image credits: (1) iStock (2) iStock (3) Doubting Thomas, Caravaggio

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Gospel: John 8: 21-30

Jesus said to the Pharisees:
“I am going away and you will look for me,
but you will die in your sin.
Where I am going you cannot come.”
So the Jews said,
“He is not going to kill himself, is he,
because he said, ‘Where I am going you cannot come’?”
He said to them, “You belong to what is below,
I belong to what is above.
You belong to this world,
but I do not belong to this world.
That is why I told you that you will die in your sins.
For if you do not believe that I AM,
you will die in your sins.”
So they said to him, “Who are you?”
Jesus said to them, “What I told you from the beginning.
I have much to say about you in condemnation.
But the one who sent me is true,
and what I heard from him I tell the world.”
They did not realize that he was speaking to them of the Father.
So Jesus said to them,
“When you lift up the Son of Man,
then you will realize that I AM,
and that I do nothing on my own,
but I say only what the Father taught me.
The one who sent me is with me. 
He has not left me alone,
because I always do what is pleasing to him.”
Because he spoke this way, many came to believe in him.

The Gospel of the Lord.

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“You will die in your sins.”

That’s a grim promise. 

But Jesus is reading the hearts of these men standing before him. They do not see him as the “way” to God; as the “way” to happiness; or as the “way” to anything good.

Rather, they see him as “in” the way.

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Jesus is “in” the way of their religion.

He’s “in” the way of their egos.

He’s “in” the way of their convenient lifestyles.

He’s upsetting their plans, flipping tables, and turning their belief system upside down, while dining with tax collectors, forgiving sinners, and breaking the Sabbath.

On Palm Sunday we will see the scribes and Pharisees’ frustrated desire to remove Jesus from their way finally begin to unfold. 

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As Christians, Jesus is always “the” way to anything good, which is why we should seek ways to strengthen our relationship with him.

In what ways can I draw closer to the Lord or better understand his Word?

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As the Psalmist reminds us, “LORD, your Word is a light for my steps and a lamp for my path.”

A path that leads to life in abundance.

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Image credits: (1) CL Church Leaders (2) Jesus, Wikipedia (3) Live Science